Pundit V.S. Hanuman Sharma asked to repay a five-year salary over deputation to an unlisted Peetham.
Visakhapatnam: K. Sobha Rani, executive officer of the Sri Kanaka Mahalakshmi Temple, Visakhapatnam, has issued a notice to the temple’s Rigveda pundit V.S. Hanuman Sharma.
As per the notice, Hanuman Sharma had been asked to return the salary he took for five years from the temple administration without doing any work.
Sobha Rani said in the notice that Hanuman Sharma had gone on a deputation to Sri Sarada Peetham, which is not listed in Section 30 of the Andhra Pradesh Charitable and Hindu Religious Institutions and Endowments Act, 1987.
The Rigveda pundit went on deputation to Sarada Peetham from May 29, 2019, to July 13, 2024. The EO has asked Sharma to return Rs 37,71, 673 within 15 days from the date of issue of the notice.
When asked on whose orders Sharma had gone on deputation to Sarada Peetham, Sobha Rani said the Rigveda pundit has been relieved from duties on orders issued by the Endowments’ commissioner. The order asked him to return to his parent organisation.
Hanuman Sharma is the son-in-law of Sarada Peetham Seer Swamy Swaroopanandendra’s elder brother. When this correspondent contacted Sharma, he refused to answer any query.
Many eyebrows have been raised in Endowment circles following the notice issued by the executive officer to return the salary.
“How can the commissioner’s office send a priest to an institution not listed under the Endowment Act? How can the priest be made responsible for this out-of-the-way deputation,” asked a senior pundit of another temple in Visakhapatnam.
